


Our, My The City

by fresne



Category: Australian Mythology, Greek and Roman Mythology, Hellenistic Religion & Lore
Genre: Agender Character, Modern, Other, Unsafe Sex, Yuletide 2015, Yuletide Treat, fluid gender character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 16:46:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5463812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fresne/pseuds/fresne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Athena had been born from Zeus' head, and yet he had never understood who had sprung from his skull. So xie left Olympus on a Monday. Opened a cafe named after hospitality on a Tuesday.</p><p>For Nygalyod, it was always now. Also, time for a cup of coffee.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our, My The City

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AlexSeanchai (EllieMurasaki)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/gifts).



Athena left Olympus quite abruptly on a Monday after Athena told xiers Father quite clearly that the moon had no pull on Athena.

Father hadn't understood. When xie had explained further, he hadn't understood in a fairly spectacular way.

Xie had been born from Father's head, and yet he had never understood who had sprung from his skull. When he'd promised all those years ago that "she" would never have to marry, he meant so "she" could stay his favorite daughter. That because xie would never have children, xie would always remain his little girl.

Which really wasn't who Athena was. A girl. That didn't mean xie was a boy.

So Athena left on a Monday.

Athena opened Xenia, a coffee shop in the little town of Arcadia, on a Tuesday, because why not. Athena had never been given a day of the week. Athena may as well take Ares' day. After all, Athena was a patron of war as well as wisdom. Xie was reason as applied to war. To tactics. To strategy. Though tactics and strategy were very different things.

Athena still ached at how the science xie had fostered in xiers favorites had led to the cracking of the atom and the strategy of dropping the atom bomb. Had led to drones as cool and calm as a seagull dropping excrement in occasionally tactical victories. Xie ached at the hollow strategy of it.

Xie discussed that once with xiers favorite customer, Ngalyod, an exchange student taking classes at Arcadia University. Ngalyod came in every day to the coffee shop. She said, "You're just upset because they're doing it wrong." The next day, Ngalyod gave Athena a copy of, "Strategy, the Indirect Approach," with a shiny bow on top. Athena had theoretically already read it. The book was not new. It had been written by the Basil Liddle-Hart out of frustration with the trenches of loss of WWI. This led to a Liddel-Hart reading binge.

Also, some laughter when Alice, who was working part time at Xenia, said that they both liked Liddle-Hart because Liddle-Hart was British like they were. Since Ngalyod was from Australia, and Athena merely spoke precisely and used polysyllabic words, that comment led to laughter.

Alice didn't last long. She quit after the semi-regular moment when all the arachnids in the shop decided they'd tempted fate long enough and left while Athena was giving a back loom weaving demonstration.

Now one day, in the midst of the vernal break, Xenia was nearly empty. Athena was weaving a new tapestry for the floor in front of the trash bin. Xie stopped when xie realized that xie had started to weaving xiers father fighting the Titans without thinking, which wasn't like xie at all.

Athena removed the backstrap of the loom and let the tapestry dangle half-finished from its hook on the wall. Athena paced from counter to cappuccino maker and tried to think what xie should do next.

Ngalyod came in from the thundering rain outside.

Athena took her order and added a little owl to the foam. Xie had been adding small animals to Ngalyod's coffee for months. It didn't mean anything that they always matched whatever animals were embroidered on Athena's clothes that day. A favorite was different from a favorite customer. Athena had decided to take no more favorites. Only customers.

Perhaps because it was nearly empty, Athena made xierself some mocha and sat down on the couch next to Ngalyod.

Ngalyod asked, "Why is Medusa's head wearing a blindfold on your name tag?"

Athena glanced down to where xiers shield had been reduced to a sticker on a piece of plastic. "So, I don't turn my customers to stone."

Ngalyod hummed at this response. After ten seconds of quiet sitting, Ngalyod said, "I've seen you weaving, but did you spin the yarn for your sweater vest?"

Athena laughed and pulled a spindle out of the hidden pocket in xiers vest.

Janice, this week's part time barrista, who spent more time reading off Xenia's wifi than making coffee, said, "Dude, pockets."

Ngalyod's dark brown eyes were so dark, they appeared to be black, as they rolled at this interruption in their conversation.

But it was as good as opening as any. Athena had been wanting to say it for some time. "I'm not a dude or a girl. I've recently come out to my family as agender."

"Ace!" was the answering reply, "which you knew." Ngalyod made a friendly shrug that reduced all lightning and thunder to a smile. "So, how did that go?"

"My Father blamed himself and wanted to set me up with someone." Xiers brother, Hephaestus, which had led to Athena feeling tighter and tighter given xiers history with Hephaestus. Father even brought up Erichthonius, as if that long dead child born of seed on the earth had been the result of an abortive tryst and not an attempted attack. Then xiers father seemed to think that Hephaestus was to blame for Athena being who xie was.

Athena was brought back to the present by Ngalyod saying, "His being a whacka about it can't change who you are. You're brilliant." Ngalyod's smile was a bright slash of gleaming teeth in the dark contrast of her face. "What did your mom think?"

Athena arched an eyebrow. "You are very curious."

Ngalyod laughed and the sound merged with the roar of the rain outside. "Curious Ngalyod, that's me. Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back." Ngalyod sipped a wing off the owl. "I go by gender-fluid Humanist myself. Being human and all. My dad thinks that's stupid. My mom thinks it’s a phase I'm going through and I'll grow out of it."

Athena immediately felt a sharp hot sense of shame. Here xie had been doing the opposite of what xie wanted from xiers family. Athena considered the pronoun options. Hu, hum, hums and humself, and felt a certain protective warmth at a fragile mortal trying to be more human.

Ngalyod leaned back in the couch. "Anyway, grouping people into binaries just leads to us and them thinking."

"Men and women."

"Good and evil."

"Here and there." Athena smiled. "And then it's all, 'there's no there, there', which leads to hurt feelings."

Ngalyod looked blank. "Sorry, what?"

Athena looked into memory. "Gertrude Stein went home to Oakland and wanted to see her childhood home, but couldn't find it. There was no there, there."

Ngalyod nodded. "You always know such interesting things." Ngalyod blew on hums coffee. "I like to pay attention to the clothes people wear." Ngalyod waved at what hu was wearing. "I always wear colors. Rainbows. Just letting people know who I am and how I want them to see me." Hu waggled fingers at Athena's ensemble. "You always wear something handmade with woven or embroidered surprises." Ngalyod's smile was a beacon. Athena leaned closer. "I like to think of all clothing as a way saying how you want people to see you." Ngalyod shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I'm the whacka."

Athena let the idea of that wind around xiers mind. Athena spun wool yarn on xiers spindle.

Ngalyod's forehead wrinkled in an immanent conversation shift. "Why'd you name your place Xenia? Did you like that show from the 90s?"

"No." Athena laughed. "Actually, yes. It was very amusing."

"If slightly queer baiting." Ngalyod sighed. "Though at least they bothered."

"But Xenia is not a reference to Xena. It's an epithet of Athena," which led to an explanation by Athena of what an epithet was and how oral poets used them in epic poetry as a memory aid. As well as letting the person hearing know what aspect of a god or goddess was being invoked.

Ngalyod said, "I love that you say invoked." Hu puckered hums mouth. "I invoke you."

Athena felt very warm. Xie removed xiers scarf.

The conversation ambled into the Indo-European roots of Greek and the evolution of the modern alphabet from Semitic Phoenician, through Indo-European Greek, through non-Indo-European Etruscan and to Indo-European Latin. Athena hadn't spoken so much in a very long time. Athena felt spun as if Ngalyod was spinning xie into yarn.

Ngalyod said, "Has anyone ever called you Google?"

"That has not been one of my epithets." Athena took a sip of mocha. "You may use it."

"Cool." Ngalyod's own coffee cup lowered as the conversation went on until it was empty. Hu looked at it and put it down. Hu said, "I'm going hiking in the woods tomorrow. Want to come?"

Athena thought about stepping out of the safe caffeinated space xier had created with its jewel toned rugs and soft surfaces. "I am… more a city dweller than a lover of the outdoors," said Athena.

"Then you picked a weird town to settle in," said Ngalyod, which was a valid remark. Arcadia was surrounded by miles of virgin forest. "But it's all good. See you around." Ngalyod wrenched huself free of the comfy couch and left Athena to the quiet murmur of Xenia.

Athena selected a favourite book from the shelf that was there for such a purpose and sat by the window to drink mocha while the rain fell outside. Athena found xierself looking more at the rain than reading.

~~~

Ngalyod wasn't really thinking about anything while hiking down the trail. Mostly gawking at tree cathedrals and listening to the sounds of the forest. Not that there weren't trees back home, but they were their own forests.

There was this one stand of Maple trees that still had its leaves. The wind hit it just right and it sounded like the leaves were clapping. Two steps forward and they sounded like a thousand wings. Like the trees were just a minute away from breaking free of the earth and flying.

Ngalyod wondered for a while what it would be like if they were to fly free. Then hu stopped wondering and kept walking.

More steps and there was the sound of footsteps running from the opposite direction. Ngalyod stood to one side of the trail like a polite being to let whoever was coming get by.

Olive-Green-Sweats-and-Black-Dykes-To-Watch-Out-For-T-Shirt (though Ogsabdtwofts was going to be awkward as proto-names went) ran around the curve of the hill. Ogsabdtwofts stopped on the trail. Ogsabdtwofts was holding a bow with a very wicked looking arrow what-you-call-it cocked on the string.

"Uh, hi," said Ngalyod, and made a little bit of a leap, but hopefully not an offensive one. "Down with the kyriarchy."

Ogsabdtwofts glared.

Ngalyod said, "I'm sorry to say I'm not really ready for a gynocracy though," and smiled pleasantly. Ngalyod was very curious to see what was going to happen next. Even the idea of next fascinated Ngalyod.

Ogsabdtwofts said, "My sister is more fragile than she appears." Ogsabdtwofts was really fierce. Also, holding a fierce weapon. "When your kind abuse the learning she tends to destroy the earth, it breaks her heart. Boy, if you hurt her any further, the porcupine will have no more quills than you as I bury my arrows in your flesh."

"There's a lot packed into that threat." Ngalyod nodded, because really there was a lot to unpack. "First of all, you really couldn't say it was my kind making the atom bomb. I'd say I'm more of a lover than a fighter, but that wouldn't be true either. Maybe I'm a maker. I do make a lot things." Which was true. "Anyway, while I was feeling pretty boyish when I put on this shirt, its all in the muted colours, I'm not a boy." Ngalyod spread hums hands. "I've decided on humanism, so if you could slip that in when threatening me, it would be great."

Ngalyod waited. There were no more threats. Other than the implied threat of the arrow. "So context is always good. Who is your sister?"

Ogsabdtwofts' nostrils flared. "Athena."

"Uh, we talk, but I think you probably have more ammunition for your sibling's heart. Maybe you should try respecting your sibling's non-binary choices." After thinking a little more, Ngalyod said, "If you're going to kill me, then you should tell me your name first. Not that most killers do, but still it would be nice."

"I am Artemis, arrow showering," said the former Ogsabdtwofts. "And my sister is no concern of yours."

Ngalyod considered correcting Artemis, arrow showering, but that really wasn't Ngalyod's job. But it did make Ngalyod feel tired on Athena's behalf. "I'm Ngalyod by the way."

They stood there a little longer. Artemis, arrow showering, was distracted by the flock of trees flying overhead. Ngalyod decided this had been interesting in a face of imminent death sort of way, but it was time to leave.

Ngalyod passed Artemis, arrow showering, looking up at the trees.

Hu made it out to the lake at the end of the trail and went for a refreshing swim. Ngalyod just couldn't feel human if hu didn't peel off hums clothes every few days and just thrash around in the water.

"Clever girl," said a voice made entirely of sex, "to find such a perfect idyll in the woods. I can see why Athena likes you."

Ngalyod scrubbed water out of hums eyes. There was a naked person (NP was an easy enough proto-name) lounging where the hot spring bubbled warmth into the water. Steam curled around bare shoulders. Perfect bleached blond curls were caught up on top of Np's head with clamshell combs.

"Hmm… yeah, I was feeling like exploring my girly aspect when I got in," said Ngalyod. Hu splashed over to where hums clothes were piled up. Hu picked up the two rocks and a stick by hums shoes and put them on.

"Now that is interesting," said NP. "And what are you exploring now?"

"It's always now," said Ngalyod swimming back out into the part of the lake where cold and warm met. "But a bit of both."

NP swam closer and after a soft exploratory kiss said, "I have a child who is a Hermaphrodite."

"Good for you," said Ngalyod, who would rather be kissing back thank talking, even if NP's voice was made of pure sex.

Kissing turned to an exploration of where differences met in the water.

NP never did give Ngalyod hus name, but hu did smile and said, "Take care of our Athena. She only thinks she's immune to my influence, but I have more than one aspect." Ngalyod would have corrected the pronoun, but Np disappeared.

Ngalyod put on hums clothes, and walked back to town. There were no more strangers, but still it had been a very enjoyable day. The only thing that could have made it better was honey.

Ngalyod had a sweet tooth.

~~~

"You always put honey in your coffee instead of sugar," said Athena.

Ngalyod was stirring hums coffee with the slender wooden stick that existed solely for this purpose, and suddenly it seemed a marvellous thing to Athena that humans thought of such a little thing, and what a marvellous age to be living in.

Ngalyod said, "I like honey. It's sweet and made by bees, which is interesting. Oh, which reminds me, I met maybe a friend of yours and one of your siblings, who was the opposite of sweet on the trail the other day."

"The antithesis of sweet could describe any number of my siblings," said Athena. Xie wanted to put on xiers armor, but xie was already wearing it. It was always there, implied by the layers of clothes and the long skirt that brushed the floor.

"Artemis, arrow showering," said Ngalyod. "I never got the other one's name. Good kisser. Has a child who identifies hermaphroditic."

"Ah," said Athena. Xie paused in what xie doing. Ngalyod was Athena's favorite customer. Aphrodite and Artemis had no business interfering with customers. Athena looked down and put down the pen that xie had crushed. "Is this to let me know that you will no longer be continuing to grace my establishment with your custom?"

Ngalyod sipped honey sweet coffee. "Does this look like the face of someone not about to drink coffee?"

Athena stood very still. That was not entirely an answer. Ngalyod was a favorite customer and nothing more. Athena had decided to take no more favorites.

"I have a hot beverage in my hand. If I ran, I'd burn myself. You don't want me to burn myself do you?"

"No," said Athena, and the conversation ambled in other directions, as it always did when talking to Ngalyod.

They were talking about the Indo-European root of the word mead when another customer came in.

More students tumbled in after the first. Many of them were speaking about some sort of prank involving flying trees. All of them wanted caffeinating.

Athena had quite abruptly become between part time help, but Athena was more than capable of managing this flood. The tables would clean themselves if left to it. But Ngalyod started picking up cups and generally helped keep the caffeine flowing.

At first Athena said, "I don't need help. I can manage this place on my own."

"Yeah, you can manage." Ngalyod looked so humanly determined that Athena stopped in place to admire hums expression. "But, if you hire me, you'll more than manage, and don't tell me you don't want to manage me. I can tell. Come on." There was Ngalyod's brilliant smile, "You know you want to hire me."

More than anything, Athena wanted to acquire this fragile human. "I do," said Athena, who then ordered Ngalyod to clean up the back while Athena straightened the counter.

Athena sometimes looked at Ngalyod, and waited for hu to realize that in this modern arid age something was very different about Xenia. That the sugar bowls never needing to be refilled and the decaffeinated coffee pot was never empty, since Athena could not be bothered to brew decaffeinated coffee. That occasionally some new crop of arachnids would run for the door.

Ngalyod smiled and laughed.

Athena had begun to consider how to give hu the rule of some city, a mayor perhaps, or win a Nobel Prize, or something. Athena paused in world spanning thoughts and wondered what shape xiers patronage should take now that xie had acknowledged certain truths about xierself. Then thinking back to clever Odysseus, crafty Theseus and wise Diomedes, xie decided that the truth had always been there.

~~~

The thing about sharing an old Victorian with five other students was Ngalyod could run into any number of people at any time. Especially when Ngalyod came home and found out hums housemates were celebrating some long forgotten disaster. They'd signed the lease on the anniversary of the Hindenburg exploding. It had been the Oh, The Humanity House ever since. Hu House for short.

Ngalyod put up a sign on hums bedroom door that said, "Not a Bathroom", and spent much of the evening in the hot tub on the back deck. There was a changing tide of very interesting people. Ngalyod put some digeridoo music on the portable speakers. Nothing set the mood like Digeridoo. Also, it made Ngalyod think of wide dry spaces. Which since the back deck overlooked the ocean crashing on the shore below, it was a wonderful contrast.

Anyway, it was the morning after and Ngalyod wanted toast with honey. Ngalyod was applying a knife to honey when someone who didn't live there shuffled into the kitchen wearing Jane's pink bathrobe and nothing else. This was a little perplexing, since it probably wasn't an actual fashion choice.

Ngalyod said, "I'm Ngalyod."

"I'm Dionysus, twice born fruitful vines and madness inducing," said Dionysus, who poured tabasco sauce in a glass of water and glugged it down with some aspirin.

"In which case, I'm Ngalyod the curious," said Ngalyod, who felt Dionysus was probably too hung over to pick an epithet and stick with it.

Dionysus followed Ngalyod out of the kitchen and into the dining room where Ngalyod had made a table out of things.

Dionysus sat on a pillow and looked very comfortable in the pink robe. "You weren't at the party last night. I would have noticed such a glorious Nubian Prince." Dionysus' teeth were stained red with wine.

Not that Ngalyod was adverse, since Dionysus had gorgeous eyes, but seriously that was not the best opening ever. "I was outside in the hot tub. I'm not Nubian. Also, not a Prince or Princess. I'm not really a fan of monarchy in general. It's never done well for my people."

Dionysus laughed. "Don't tell our Father that."

"Did you just use the royal our?"

"No," Dionysus managed to lounge on the soft pillow and be the epitome of the word louche, which was Ngalyod's favourite word. "You work for my sister, Athena, which was what brought you to my attention."

"Gah!" Ngalyod made emphatic gestures at the caring universe. "Could one of Athena's family members manage not to be heteronormative?"

Dionysus reached over and flicked the collar of Ngalyod's bathrobe of rainbow colours. "I assure you, I swing in both directions."

"Fine, wrong word. Gender binary." Ngalyod did not have the patience for this. "I need to shower and get to class."

Dionysus said, "I could use a shower." Dionysus gave Ngalyod a very louche look.

Ngalyod looked at Dionysus and the way the robe was hanging open. "Fine. I'll find the box of condoms."

As the fake vines clipped to the shower curtain turned into real vines, Dionysus said, "You're taking that very calmly." Dionysus sucked another spot along Ngalyod's neck. "Still, it would be a pleasure to drive you mad."

"Not really," said Ngalyod and hu demonstrated the power of strong thigh muscles.

Dionysus was gone by the time Ngalyod left for class. Ngalyod had kind of expected it, but announced to the open air, "I was going to give you some homemade mead. According to Athena, there's a word for mead in every Indo-European language. But," hu rubbed at a bite mark in an uncomfortable place, "I guess you only drink wine."

~~~~

Athena had not intended to fight crime. Athena had intended to serve coffee and exist in a small hospitable space lined with soft rugs.

It started with the theft of Ngalyod's housemate's boyfriend's phone. Athena rolled xiers eyes, logged on to the telecom website and identified that the phone had been forgotten in a couch at a party.

When there were a string of thefts at the shops up and down the street, Athena had not intended to do anything. There was report after report of objects disappearing with no video cameras catching the thief. They would simply be there and then the next moment the object would be gone. There were calls by the Merchant Association for the City to do something.

Something curled in Athena's heart at the sound of a call to the polis. It was even better than when Athena had been summoned to perform xiers civic duty on a jury or when xie paid taxes for the maintenance of the state. Ngalyod stood in the doorway of Xenia and said, "I bet we could figure out who's doing it." Hu smiled. "I'm curious and you're clever. Together, we should fight crime."

Athena sighed. "I already have a good idea who it is."

That night, Athena slipped home. Then realized that xie had called Olympus home, if only in xiers head. It made Athena particularly aggressive when xie picked up Hermes and shook him. "Sis, what?" he said extremely innocently. Xie shook him again.

"Fine, the things are in your old room. I just wanted you to come back for a visit." Athena sighed. Knowing Hermes, that statement was both true and a lie. They were crossing the courtyard when they ran into Father.

Hermes made his escape. Father scooped Athena up in a hug. "You're back." It felt good to be held. It felt good to step back and look into eyes the same color as xiers own. It felt less good when he said, "I knew my little girl couldn't stay angry with me. I know I was wrong to try to set you up with Hephaestus. I promised you could stay a virgin, and I keep my promises."

Xie considered the options. Tactical and Strategic. "I'm not angry."

Xie stayed for dinner then xie went home.

It caused something of a ruckus the next morning when all that was stolen had been returned. Ngalyod looked at Athena and said, "You fought crime without me."

Athena said, "There wasn't much fighting." Then after cleaning the counter to gleaming said, "I had dinner with my father." That effectively changed the conversation and earned Athena a hand to xiers wrist. A fragile touch like a butterfly's wing. There and then gone.

The new normal resumed for the next few weeks. Athena went back to Olympus on Wednesdays for dinner.

It was a Friday when Alice came back. Not for her job, which was a ship long since sailed, but because her fiancée had been accused of killing his father. "They argued. He admitted that. That's why he walked away from his Father to cool off. When he came back to where he'd left him by Lake Tepedaria, his dad was dead. I know Mike was the only one there, but he didn't do it."

Athena distinctly felt like this had been the plot of one of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and was then struck by the thought that for a figure so closely associated with a city, Holmes spent a great deal of time investigating things outside of the polis.

Ngalyod raised hums eyebrows at Athena and bounced on hums toes. "We could look into it."

Which was how they hiked out to a lake in the woods. Athena found xierself agreeing with Doyle vis a vis Holmes. The wilderness could hide any number of monstrous atrocities. For example, the monstrous luminescent thing that thrashed out of the lake as they arrived. Such a thing could never have been hidden in a city.

"Stand behind me," said Athena, taking a blow from a glowing tusk on her shield. It really was fortunate that Athena was always armed.

"Oh! I think this is my fault," said Ngalyod. "I did the naughty with a friend of yours in this lake."

Athena heaved the thing back with a shove of xiers shield. "And you abandoned a monstrous child in the woods?"

"No!" Ngalyod scratched hums cheek. "Though I think NP might have." Ngalyod sighed. "I should have used a condom."

Athena glared at Ngalyod. "What are you talking about?"

Ngalyod said, "I said was gender fluid." Ngalyod ever present rainbow hued clothes shimmered and shifted as hum changed shapes and it became clear that humanism was more of a state of mind for Ngalyod.

Ngalyod's eyes were there in the face of the rainbow colored serpent that coiled at the lake's edge, but little else remained the same in hus appearance.

The creature didn't appear to be happy to see hus father. Hu roared from the shallow water by the beach they were standing. Hu must have been sleeping when the police came to investigate the crime scene, or hu was clever enough to only attack when there was only one or two people on the shore.

Athena pulled xiers spear from where it was hidden in xiers hair. "I can face it. You shouldn't have to face the Erinyes for killing your child."

Ngalyod slid into the water and coiled around the monster. The creature shattered into rainbow colored fish that swam in all directions.

"Or you could do that."

Ngalyod slid back out of the water and shifted back into the shape that Athena had become familiar with. Ngalyod tapped the edge of Athena's shield with curious fingers. Athena rolled xiers eyes and let Ngalyod have a look.

Ngalyod looked back at the lake. "This wasn't much of a crime."

"Child abandonment," said Athena, who was not going to question Ngalyod's encounters with xiers family. Athena was resolutely not going to comment. Xie said, "You should avoid having sex with my family."

"It may not be one of your life's pleasures, but it is mine." Ngalyod grimaced. "But how will we clear Mike of murder?"

"A monster in the lake doesn't mean he didn't kill his father," said Athena, who walked to the area where the body had been found. Athena examined the ground. "Fine, it was the monster in the lake." Athena took photos and mentally composed a report for Mike's lawyer that would elide the facts and posit an escaped orangutan. This meant they had to arrange for the escape of an orangutan, which since Ngalyod was a shapeshifter and Athena was an agender diety, wasn't entirely difficult.

As they went back to Xenia and let in the caffeine starved hordes, Ngalyod said, "We should fight crime more often."

"This is my city now."

"Our city," said Ngalyod, as hu cleaned a table.

"Please, you're the one who endangered it."

Athena tried to scowl at Ngalyod, but hu made expresso with a little owl in the foam of Athena's cup and a serpent in the foam for Ngalyod. They toasted each other.

"Our city."

**Author's Note:**

> If after reading my fiction here, you would like to read more about me and my writing check out my profile.


End file.
